For the last several days it’s been my delight to have my friend Paul as a guest. I find myself inviting a small coterie of friends repeatedly for extended stays not just because I enjoy their company, but also because each one of them contributes to running the household in ways that make my life easier. For those who see life in terms of cost-benefit analysis, the cost in additional effort from having such guests is far more than compensated by the benefit of their efforts and companionship while here.

The last couple of days, while I was chained to my computer doing legal work in the office upstairs, Paul not only cleaned the kitchen, but also devoted himself to the gardens near the house. He mowed the nearby lawn, cleared walkways, chopped back overgrown vines and ferns to uncover imminently blooming hostas, and cut down small mulberries and other invasive trees that have been proliferating in the perennial beds.

I’m particularly grateful for these efforts because these areas are the ones I most neglect, their function being ornamental rather than agricultural in nature. Yesterday, as we had lunch on the screened porch, one of my loyal customers arrived to pick up her order of eggs and turnips. I introduced her to Paul and credited him with the cleared walkway that was so much easier for her to navigate than in previous weeks. She replied by complimenting his work, and bluntly reminded me that it was clearly my late partner who had concerned himself with such matters. “I know, your other half was the gardener, not you,” she said with a smile, recalling the days when things looked rather more Home and Garden around here.

I try to overcome my embarrassment at the state of things by telling myself that the vegetable garden and the berries are as important as the perennial beds. I find them just as beautiful, at least potentially, and equally important they feed me and produce income. They are part of the point of this project. In the vegetable garden, I weed daily, I plant, I trim, I water, though thankfully spared of the latter task this last rainy week.

But even there, keeping up is something of a Sisyphean task. The weeds are no less prolific in the vegetable garden. Weeding is only the half of it. Battling munching invaders, this year chiefly rabbits, is another. I have carefully observed the dietary preferences of the rabbits, and have a clear sense of their taste hierarchy. Despairing of patching every hole in the garden perimeter fence through which they’ve been entering, I’ve taken to circling each planting bed they eat from. And as I fence off a preferred vegetable food, they turn to the next most flavorful item in their palate.

I haven’t planted carrots this year, though I can tell you from past experience that it’s pretty high on the list. As a result, this year the first items to disappear were sugar snap pea vines and my entire bed of lettuce, from which I got not one salad. After demolishing those, the rabbits turned to the brassica family, going first for cabbages and Brussels sprout plants.

For a while to my surprise they left the broccoli alone, turning instead to beet tops. I put chicken wire fencing around the cabbages, brussels sprouts and beets and left my interior fencing project relax for a while, turning my efforts to continuing to plant or, as necessary, replant. It turned out my broccoli complacency was misplaced. Though the rabbits did turn sporadic attention to my bed of swiss chard, the broccoli plants they had let grow for weeks suddenly started getting eaten back or disappearing entirely. I despairingly let the broccoli bed return to weeds, and when today I started weeding it to be fenced and replanted I found just two tiny plants still struggling to make a comeback (see one struggling example above).

At least I now know what the rabbits don’t particularly have a taste for: fava beans, spinach, chervil, coriander, dill, mint, fennel, radishes, turnips, rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, cucumbers, okra, garlic, sorrel, and even beans have so far been spared. I’ve been fencing the beans nevertheless. I know that even if the rabbits leave them alone, groundhogs will inevitably appear to express their food preferences, and beans seem high on that list.

Last night Paul suggested we watch a movie, The Secret Garden: the 1993 version with Maggie Smith, which he prefers to the recent remake. Given the garden theme of our day, it seemed appropriate.

It’s a pretty sentimental plot in which the garden is a key character. A flower garden in an English country estate, the project of the lady of the manor, is locked at her husband’s orders when she dies in childbirth. It is reopened ten years later by her recently orphaned niece when she is taken into the household. The niece’s recovery of the garden also brings to life, from his invalid state, her cousin, the one whose mother died in childbirth, and returns joy and love to the lord of the manor. The garden is the source of life and joy.

Paul warned me that the depiction of the garden would be unrealistic to any real gardener. The girl unlocks the garden gate, uncovers some daffodil shoots, and throws some seeds around. Presto, a couple of months later there is a spectacular English garden, with no evidence that a vine ever overgrew a bush or that a weed was ever pulled. But it offered a pleasing prospect nonetheless.

I now think of my perennial garden as a secret garden too. It is not locked behind a door, but rather buried under a mass of vines and weeds. I know it will be just spectacular if I open the gate by removing those weeds, or at least if I get Paul to stay here for a few weeks to do it for me. If only I could figure out how to keep the vegetable garden a secret from the rabbits.

What’s New This Week

Happy Fourth of July.

Fava beans, limited quantity, but sufficient for those who pre-ordered

Black currants. Next week gooseberries

WHAT’S AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Sour Cherries $7 a quart (limited quantity)

Black currants, $8/pint

Rhubarb $4 a lb.

Mint $1 a bunch

Dill, $1 a bunch

Lamb’s quarters $2 a bag

White oasis turnips, $3/lb

Shiso leaves, $1 for 10

Sorrel, $3 a bag

Garlic chives, $1/bunch (flat leafed)

EGGS: $5/doz

CHICKENS: They were quite uniform in size, all just around 6 lbs, a few under. These freedom rangers have been what you want them to be, deeply flavorful. $6/lb, frozen.

FARM PICKUPS:

Email us your order at farm@turkanafarms.com, and let us know when you’d like to pick up your order. It will be put out for you on the side screened porch of the farmhouse (110 Lasher Ave., Germantown) in a bag. You can leave cash or a check in the now famous pineapple on the porch table. Because I’m now here full time, we’re abandoning regular pick-up times. Let us know when you want your order any day between 10 and 5, and unless there are unusual circumstances we’ll be able to ready it to your convenience. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call or text at 917-544-6464 or email.

Categories: